The Range: The Tucson Weekly's Daily Dispatch

CD2 Update: Barber Leads McSally By 829 Votes

With Pima County wrapping up another batch of early ballots today, Congressman Ron Barber has moved to a lead of 829 votes over Republican challenger Martha McSally.

Cochise County is expected to deliver a new report of early-ballot votes later today.

In the meantime, The Range has a better understanding of the outcome of today's court hearing in Cochise County: Attorneys on both sides agreed to allow the counting of the questioned provisional ballots, but Republicans have asked that the batch of ballots be segregated so that if they file a future legal action over the outcome of the election, those ballots could become part of the case.

Barber campaign manager Jessica Floyd had this to say about the legal action:

We are happy that Cochise County officials are going to be allowed to do their jobs and count these Southern Arizonans' votes. We remain disappointed that Martha McSally's Republican attorneys attempted to insert themselves into the vote counting process, and we will be watching the process closely moving forward.

National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Daniel Scarpinato had this to say:

Today’s outcome is a great victory for Southern Arizonans and the integrity of the election process. Every voter has the right to an election that is free of ballot tampering. With today’s outcome, all legally cast ballots will be counted while at the same time safeguarding the accuracy of the result.